Survivor 29 Blood vs Water San Juan del Sur

[Bernnie Federko]

Here's the latest thread with Hot Takes from my office pool...

Ok, the premiere is tonight! Hopefully it’ll be another good season since they’re reprising the Blood vs Water twist, but without any returning players. Here’s who we’ve got:



Jaclyn, 25, Media Buyer, girlfriend of Jon; she’s a recent beauty pageant winner, seems bland, pretty and forgettable

Dale, 55, Farmer, father to Kelley; outdoorsy, but he’s the oldest which never bodes well. Older guys who know what they’re doing outdoors usually get frustrated with their tribe and come across as bossy, I expect he’ll be short-lived.

Drew, 25, Traveling Salesman, brother of Alec; Traveling salesman is still a thing? Huh, go figure. Anyway Drew & his brother are the pretty-boy models which could get old fast. We’ll see.



John, 39, Former professional baseball player, boyfriend to Julie; Rich jock who’s made a lot of really stupid racial and homophobic comments. Hopefully he’s eliminated quickly because a) I very much dislike him, and b) do I need another reason?

Alec, 22, college student, brother of Drew; sounds like he’s more active than his brother, and also very competitive with him. Eh, I’m dubious.

Nadiya, 28, Crossfit coach, twin sister to Natalie; Ugh, these twins have twice been on the Amazing Race and they are a very shrieky pair who yelled at each other a lot. Physically fit, but I have strong doubts about her social game.



Missy, 47, Competitive cheerleading gym owner, mother to Baylor; That’s a strangely specific niche for a gym. Ah, it’s Dallas, never mind. Anyway, she’s the oldest female which again doesn’t usually look good.

Natalie, 28, Crossfit coach, twin sister to Nadiya: See her sister’s comments.

Josh, 32, Singer, actor, writer (he’s a triple threat!), boyfriend to Reed; idiots are his pet peeve which leads me to suspect he won’t have the strongest social game. I could be wrong.



Jeremy, 36, firefighter, husband to Val; firefighters are usually good (remember Tom, anyone?), but then again bigger guys often suffer the deprivation more. Tentatively good.

Jon, 26, Financial Assistant, boyfriend to Jaclyn; the other half of the bland, pretty and forgettable duo.

Val, 35, Police Officer, wife to Jeremy; A firefighter/cop couple. Well, on paper it sounds good. My feelings are tainted by our last cop Tony who was quite a piece of work, but hopefully she’s better (she’d pretty much have to be).



Keith, 53, Fire captain, father to Wes; He’s older (not great) and he has an aversion to ‘loafers’ so he’s going to be bossy (double not great). I suspect an early exit.

Wes, 23, Firefighter, son to Keith; Yeesh, so many firefighters. He’ll be in shape but he talks about having the ‘girls’ at his beck and call, which frankly, yuck.

Julie, 34, Model and owner of a Spray Tan business, girlfriend of the Rocker; Well, she’s a jerk’s girlfriend, so … do the math. All signs point to ‘equally annoying’.



Baylor, 20, student, daughter of Missy; She’s a cheerleader who won some kind of cheerleading World championship. Do other countries have much in the way of cheerleading? The young tend to be a little clueless, so probably not the greatest. But I’m sure she has spirit, yes she does.

Kelley, 28, marketing manager, daughter of Dale; she likes puzzles (usually a good thing, assuming she’s actually good at them) and she’s active. Since I think her dad will be an early target, that may give her an opportunity to stick around a while.

Reed, 31, Broadway performer, model and aerialist, boyfriend of Josh; What’s an aerialist? A model plane enthusiast? A cirque de soleil performer? Help me Google! Ok, so an aerialist is an acrobat who performs in the air on a trapeze or swing. So, physically fit, then. But also a model which I’m always dubious of.



Let the games begin!

 

[SneakyPete]

John Rocker won't last long.

Those twins from Amazing Race are crossfit coaches? They weren't in very shape on AR.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

A new season begins with Jeff’s usual introductory spiel, talking about the blood vs water trick and how the loved ones will be competing against each other … for at least a week or two anyway. Also, Exile Island is back instead of Redemption Island, which is a step up as far as I’m concerned. Now we meet the survivors. First up are the college sweethearts whose names I failed to remember. They are white, pretty and bland but they want to stress that they are not perfect. Bleh. Next is Rocker and his girlfriend. They acknowledge his controversy which Rocker immediately blames on the media. Oh, so it was the media that made him write an article saying that if the Jewish people had guns, there wouldn’t have been a Holocaust, was it? Also, calling him bigoted, ‘them’s fighting words’. His girlfriend Julie seems pampered and whiny.

The mother and daughter are frightened of monkeys. The brothers are competitive. The father and daughter are … I don’t know, they’re dull enough that I have no opinion. The Broadway performing gay couple love Survivor. One gave the other flint for their birthday (presumably once they knew they were going to be on the show, otherwise, that’s just cheap). Also, the gay couple as Broadway performers, CBS? Does all of your casting have to hit as broad a stereotype as possible? (As a note, RIP to Caleb, Colton’s fiancée, who was killed in a train derailment.)

The husband and wife firefighter and cop are super competitive and eager to play. The Amazing Race twins are super annoying and argue a lot, which was exactly their modus operandi on that other show too. Then, there’s the father and son Keith & Wes. Keith is pretty awesome and funny. They lose the striker to make fire, then they break the flint. The pair of them mock each other quite a bit.



On to the actual show. As Jeff talks to Natalie (or Nadiya), it takes zero seconds before the Amazing Race is brought up. I ignore their answer to a stupid question anyway. To what should be nobody’s surprise, the loved ones are being split onto two separate tribes. We get an interview from Keith where he clearly recognizes John Rocker, where he says Rocker was an @ss and that maybe he’s still an @ss. More points to Keith.



We’re immediately getting a reward challenge where Jeff notably asks one tribe to provide a person to play. This should telegraph to everyone involved that therefore they will be playing their loved one, but this seems not to occur to anyone. Jeremy, the firefighter, insists he should compete for his tribe, and therefore Val, the cop (and his wife) are competing against each other. The winner gets flint & beans, the loser goes to exile. It involves navigating ropes, retrieving rings, tossing rings with ropes at platforms and dragging them back. Jeremy builds up a sizeable lead and wins. He’s sad and speechless that he’s beaten his wife, and now she’s going to exile. He keeps talking about how it’s his job to protect her, and she’s not having that, because she can take care of herself. Now Jeremy has to pick someone from his own tribe to go with Val, and he picks Keith, because “Keith can take care of her.” Seriously, yuck and shut up.



The problem with blood vs water is that there’s no shortage of these tear-up moments where survivors interview about how hard it is for their loved ones. Bleh. At the camp, Jeremy is allying himself with all the women. Meanwhile at the other camp, Dale, the oldest guy and a farmer, knows he’s on the outs with his tribe. He’s using his glasses to try to make fire, while a second group is using the sticks/friction method. The glasses aren’t working until he breaks them and doubles the lenses together. Then, he gets fire! Good for him, and everyone is happy. Dale thinks he’s now safe, and that’s just not true. At best, this buys you three more days if you’re lucky.



On exile, Val and Keith are wandering around. They come across instructions for each of them to pick a container which they do. Keith’s container has a blank piece of paper while Val’s has a clue to a hidden immunity idol back at her camp. She does not share the info with Keith even though it could easily help him out too. It’s unclear whether Keith realizes that, he’s just happy to find out that Jeremy and he are both firefighters, so he can use that to build a relationship.



Drew, one of the brothers, talks about being a ‘successful’ model and he can shut up too. He works on the shelter with Jon (I think) and thinks he should get credit for that. I don’t think that will happen. Rocker lies to Wes about his last name for about three seconds. Let’s just say if he were one of the three pigs, his house would not be made of bricks. Or even sticks. There’s an amusing bit where Wes asks if his real last name has 5 letters, and Rocker, surprised, says no. Then you can see Wes counting in his head and realizing it’s 6 letters. Rocker’s first instinct is to target Wes, and of course it is.

Josh, meanwhile, has gotten some kind of rash on or around his eye which looks pretty painful. They decide on fairly meagre evidence that it’s the leaves from their roof so they pull them all down (with bare hands, I’d note). Jon’s dad was recently diagnosed with a brain tumour, but he came on Survivor with his Dad’s blessing after much thought.



On to the immunity challenge which involves the team navigating as a group through obstacles and scaling walls, then a puzzle (there’s always a puzzle). Rocker is instrumental in getting his tribe to the puzzle first. But the second team catches up. The puzzle is pretty difficult but the non-Rocker tribe wins. (I know, I know: Rocker vs non-Rocker as tribe designations, suck. I’ll come up with something else. Or I won’t. Sue me!)



The Jeremy/Keith tribe (that won) is back at camp and Jeremy is thanking Keith and saying he owes Keith for taking care of his wife. Again, yeesh. Keith says ‘it weren’t no chore’, as he seems to realize there was no real way in which he took care of Val, but on the other hand, if Jeremy thinks he owes Keith, then great. On the losing side, Val is looking for an idol but I don’t think she’s found it. Dale is targeting Nadiya for being a nasty player on the Amazing Race … which I have no recollection of. I didn’t much like the twins but that was because they were loud, not nasty. Dale is talking to the guys and getting them on side. Val is talking to the girls and convincing them to vote for Dale. Nadiya talks to Josh and says he’s ‘one of the girls’ which Josh apparently hates as a phrase. Baylor approaches Josh and they’re clearly the swing votes. She says she’ll vote however Josh does. Josh says he may not decide until tribal, which is never true.



At tribal, it’s another two seconds before the Amazing Race is brought up. Nadiya is funny in comparing the two shows though. Val hints she has an idol. The girls call out the guys as bonding, Dale is brought up as a target and he brings up how he made fire (yeah, but what did you do lately?). Wes points out Josh as the swing vote and Nadiya again refers to him as one of the girls. Ouch, stop doing that. We vote, Rocker votes for Nadiya, Nadiya votes for Dale. The votes are read and it’s 4 votes for Nadiya, 3 votes for Dale, and 1 vote for Baylor?!? Where did that come from? Over the credits, we see that Josh voted for Baylor which is just a terrible, terrible decision. He obviously did it to try to keep his status as between the two sides, but all this will do is make everyone not trust him, and probably piss his ally Baylor off. You can say you knew she wasn’t in any trouble, but you still wrote her name down. I don’t like being the swing vote early, but once you’ve put yourself in that position, you HAVE to be decisive in using it. Wishy-washy makes everyone mad. Anyway, we then get scenes from the rest of the season where somebody appears to be quitting and maybe a medical evac. Oh and we get Rocker saying “if you were a man, I’d knock your teeth in”. Threatening physical violence to women, how topical and manly. I guess it’s the media’s fault.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

Episode 2 is in the books, and so far, it’s beginning to look like the Rocker show. Which is a show I would want cancelled immediately. Anyway, tribe terrible that can’t win anything returns from tribal council and Josh explains to Baylor that he voted for her in order to hide their alliance. If I’m one of the other guys, it would matter more to me that he didn’t vote with us. Silly overthinking on Josh’s part. Baylor is unhappy but accepting, apparently. On the other tribe, they’ve managed to lose their flint. Oh boy, this season is not filled with the smartest people. The tribe is unhappy. You know who else is unhappy? Natalie. We arrive at the Exile challenge, and discover that Nadiya is gone. Natalie talks about that being difficult and I tune this part out. Yes, I’m a coldhearted jerk.



Rocker is eager to volunteer for the challenge, which pits him knowingly against Julie, his girlfriend. It’s balancing a ball on a disc through an obstacle course, then playing skee-ball to land three balls in holes. Rocker is a tall guy and there are two points in the course where he has to duck under poles, which he is unable to do. He drops the ball three times and has to start over, allowing Julie to pretty easily win. Rocker is angry that a girl beat him. It’s balancing and skee-ball, not heavyweight wrestling, for crying out loud. Apparently Rocker believes that girls are worse at absolutely everything than boys (or maybe just worse than him). He’s a real hero, this one. He’s going to exile, and Julie sends Jeremy with him. And Julie’s team wins fishing gear. Before moving on, though, the fireless tribe (who has just won reward) has a proposal for Jeff. They offer him their remaining beans for another flint. Probst is annoyed that they waited until after they won reward to make the proposal, so he rejects their offer and counters with the fishing gear for the flint. The tribe is somewhat split, and at first they aren’t going to take it. Jeff says that next time, his offer will be even worse, so that scares them into taking the flint.



While Rocker’s on exile, the rest of his tribe is discussing his infamy, with Dale describing what he said about the ethnic makeup of New York. Oh, and Jeremy interviews that he knows who Rocker is too, so the secret is out pretty much everywhere. Both Josh and Jeremy interview that they’ll work with him because Rocker is a bigger target. Jeremy pulls the clue to the hidden immunity idol back at camp and immediately shares it with Rocker, making him a deal that Rocker will protect Val and Jeremy will protect Julie.



And now it’s the immunity challenge: 1 on 1 battles to knock your opponent into the water off a platform using padded thingys. It’s brutal and hard fought. Rocker loses his battle against Jon, and gets a bloody nose too. Drew cheers for the wrong side at least once. Missy faces off against her daughter Baylor, they charge and Baylor takes a hit to the mouth and stops the contest. She’s crying but wants to continue, and her mom is so shaken that she barely tries at all so Baylor wins. It’s eventually 4-4 and it comes down to a re-match between Kelly and Jaclyn where Jaclyn had won the first time handily. But this time Kelly wins the deciding bout (and it’s her birthday too!). So tribe terrible continues to lose.



Back at camp, Rocker tells Val with Jaclyn there , about his deal with Jeremy. Val brings up the idol clue and says Rocker had better start looking because she’s found 2 idols, that she’ll use to protect herself and Jaclyn. This … is mind-bogglingly stupid. Ridiculously so. Val interviews that she’s making big moves. An impossible to believe lie that only makes the target on you bigger? That’s desperate, not big. Rocker then takes about five minutes, it seems, to find the actual idol himself. You’d think this would give away that Val couldn’t possibly also have an idol (let alone 2) but Rocker tells everyone she’s got 2. So, the decision is to split votes 3-3 between Val and Baylor. Rocker tells Val to play her idol and Baylor will go home. Val doesn’t tell Rocker that she does not in fact have an idol, instead Val and Jaclyn will throw their votes to Baylor. But Josh has seen Val and Rocker talking.



On to tribal where Val has it out with Baylor for her having instructed the girls to vote Dale, and then flipping on them anyway. Baylor doesn’t have much to say to that. There’s talk about how the tribe has been bad at challenges, blah, blah, blah. Josh compares it to retooling a Broadway show, and that’s the first time we’ve had that as an analogy. Points for originality. We vote and it’s a tie 4-4 between Val and Baylor, with Val not playing an idol that she did not have. Rocker is upset that Val lied to him, so he flips his vote and it’s 4-1 against Val. Bad play by Val, and Jeremy will be absolutely thrilled with Rocker now.



In next week’s preview, everybody knows about Rocker, and he’s handling it all with grace, humility and dignity. And not at all threatening violence. Maybe they’ll just kick him off, that would be good.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

Well, ask and ye shall receive, I guess. I ended last week’s recap saying that if Rocker was to go (and he was), then it should be this week. Which was a tough ask, seeing that he has an idol. The moral of the story is to never doubt the power of a confident idiot. We begin this week’s episode with Baylor unhappy that she came so close to being voted out, and Josh explaining that he flipped his vote to save Baylor, realizing that both Val and Jaclyn were voting for Baylor. Meanwhile, on the other tribe, Drew wants the roof fixed, but not enough to do any of the work himself. A roof is woven by the tribe while Drew naps right next to them. There’s nothing that bonds a tribe faster than shared dislike of a lazy tribe member. It’s not so good for that tribe member, usually, though.



And we’re off to the Exile Arena. Jeremy is unhappy that Val was voted out, he appears to direct his comments to the remaining two women Jaclyn and Baylor that they need to do something because the women are being picked off. Um, duh? I’m not sure what exactly he thinks they can do about it. The losing tribe picks Wes for the exile reward challenge, and he faces off against his dad Keith. They’re balancing on a swinging beam, transporting disks from one end to the other with a long pizza paddle. It’s pretty close, but Keith drops one disk and that makes the difference. Wes wins (the tribe’s first win!), and they choose fishing gear as their reward. Wes picks Josh to go with Keith to Exile.



After the challenge, Jeremy tells his entire tribe about Rocker’s past, which makes Julie upset because she thinks she’ll be a target by association. Probably true. On exile, Keith & Josh share the idol clue, they think Rocker or Jeremy could have an idol which makes them 50% correct. They also bond and we get the requisite interview about how a straight guy and a gay guy are bonding when they normally wouldn’t have. You, know, that’s great and all but just once I’d like this to happen and have both parties be like, ‘eh, it’s not that big a deal’. Spending time with people of a different sexual orientation does not make you a hero. It’s perfectly normal, or at least it should be.



Rocker goes fishing and is successful. But Baylor is targeting him anyway. She tries to sway Wes and … Alec? I think? They are not swayed. On to immunity where pairs from each tribe will scramble through a wooden obstacle thingy and shoot a ball in a tube. This one’s hard to describe. First to three wins, and the loser tribe loses again. Immediately, Natalie is verbally attacking Rocker over his bad sportsmanship, and brings up his racist/homophobic past. Jeff pretends he doesn’t know what they’re talking about, so that Rocker will talk about it. Rocker’s tribe defends him, and then Rocker talks about knocking Natalie’s teeth in ‘if she was a guy’. Ugh, what a fantastic human being. Julie tells Rocker to stop. He doesn’t. The problem for Natalie is that she’s not coming across particularly good here either.



Back at camp, Rocker admits to Josh that he has an idol and Baylor should go next. Josh isn’t pleased that Rocker has an idol, he isn’t pleased that Rocker had a deal with Jeremy, and he doesn’t really want to play with him anymore. Meanwhile, Rocker is telling the women that they should vote for Dale which they agree to but not really. Josh talks to Baylor and Wes about targeting Rocker, but that it has to be quiet or Rocker will play his idol. They should really include Jaclyn here, if only to tell her not to go overboard at tribal. And at tribal, both Jaclyn and Baylor talk about shifting alliances and getting rid of a dark cloud. It would have been enough for me to play my idol, but thanking all the deities in all the known universes, I am not John Rocker and he does not play his idol. He is voted out 4-2 and now Dale and Jaclyn are probably on the bottom.



In next week’s preview, Drew is asserting control over his tribe and is going to make an announcement to Jeff. Which is awesome, and probably means he’s doomed.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

Gah, what an idiot we had this week. I’m not sure there’s ever been such a wide gap between a Survivor’s perception of their abilities and power within the tribe and the reality. And it starts right off the bat with the missing flint being found right next to the campfire. Most of the tribe is kind of annoyed with how close it was and how they should have been able to find it, but Drew is really upset that they lost the fishing gear over it. He suggests that they try to trade the newfound flint back to Jeff for the fishing gear. Nobody thinks that’s a good idea, because there is zero chance of Jeff accepting that. Drew, however, is going to “balls up” and act on behalf of his tribe.



On to the exile challenge, and Drew immediately makes his proposal to Jeff while his tribe laughs at him. Jeff strings Drew along for a bit until Drew figures out it’s going nowhere. Everybody laughs at Drew, including me. On to the challenge which has Jon facing off against his girlfriend Jaclyn where they grapple hook balls and then catapult the balls into baskets. Jaclyn gets off to a lead, but Jon catches and passes her, and ultimately wins. He selects his buddy Drew to accompany Jaclyn to Exile. At Exile, Drew gets the clue to the hidden idol and shares it with Jaclyn. Jaclyn jokingly talks about Drew being a ladies man, and Drew completely seriously says that it’s a curse. Oh my, the ego on this guy. Then, Drew tells Jaclyn he intends to throw the challenge because there are snakes that need to be gotten rid of on his side. Whew, really? What a terrible idea.



Meanwhile, Keith is looking for the idol, which mostly involves him kicking dirt around right by the well, rather than 7 paces north. After awhile he gives up and assumes that Jeremy has found the idol. He rushes over to Natalie and Missy(?) and tells them that Jeremy must have the idol. Natalie is quick to tell Jeremy who is floored that his ally would do that. Why wouldn’t Keith just talk to him directly? An excellent question. This riles Jeremy against Keith. Meanwhile, Keith gives looking another go, this time in the right spot and voila. He’s found the idol. Keith thinks it’s good that he threw the focus onto Jeremy instead.



On to the immunity challenge which involves swimming and retrieving rings to be tossed on hooks. Drew has set himself up as one of the two ring tossers for his tribe, and he is really really unsubtle about trying to throw the challenge. His every throw is horrible, in many cases missing by a wide mile. He interviews after that if he doesn’t want them to win, then they’re not going to win and that makes him the kingpin. Um, no. Drew’s tribe does indeed lose, but they just think it’s because he’s bad, not that he threw it.



Back at camp, Jon wants to target Julie because he thinks the couples should target the individuals. An odd strategy, to be sure. It doesn’t matter though because Drew joins the conversation and he asserts straight up that Kelley needs to go because she’s the mastermind or something. What? Where is that coming from? Drew will not entertain any other option at all. Jeremy on the other hand wants to go after Keith. We are all over the place here. We also get Drew and Jon talking to Natalie, with Drew basically saying to her that he doesn’t trust any of the women to keep their word and Jon has to shut him up. Then, we get Drew referring to ‘all the b|tches’ and wow, the misogyny is strong in this one. And then we get Drew talking about voting Kelley right in front of her and he doesn’t care. It’s like Drew is hitting all of the ‘terrible player’ buttons all at once. The women see how the guys are a mess, and they decide to target Drew.



On to tribal where the disarray is very much on display. Keith and Jeremy argue over how Keith handled the idol situation. Jeremy thinks Keith should have talked to him since they were allies, and Keith scoffs at this, especially at the idea that Keith and Jeremy could have had a sub-alliance within the greater alliance. Keith does not appear capable of grasping slightly elaborate concepts. There’s discussion about how nobody seems to know what’s going on. Then we vote. Drew, alone, votes for Kelley. Keith and Reed vote for Julie. Jon votes for Keith. And all the women with Jeremy vote for Drew, and he’s gone! Such a good job there, Drew, you’re really the master manipulator alright. He threw the challenge and didn’t get a single other person to vote his way, and off he goes. That’s just terrible. And yet, he interviews that he was gotten rid of because he was a threat. No, that is not true.



In next week’s preview, it’s Jon’s turn to self-destruct as he goes off on his tribe for not being with him. You know, if the entire tribe didn’t vote your way, it’s not a good time to make a ‘with me or against me’ ultimatum. And yet, Jon looks like he’ll be saved by the inevitable tribe switch-up.

 

[basketballjones]

awesome blindside, what a clown

 

[Bernnie Federko]

So, the previous week’s trailer had Jon saying “If you’re not with me, you’re against me!” claiming that he was self-destructing. What they didn’t show (and did at the beginning of this week’s episode) was that Jon was in fact quoting Drew, and that he was actually apologizing for allying with Drew. So, that was a whole lot of engineered nothing. Jon’s upset that he’s on the outs, but not for long. We’re off to the Exile Arena, where the losery tribe is upset to see that Drew was voted out. Alec believes it had to be because he was a threat. No, Alec, it was because Drew was an excruciatingly terrible player. So, get your own act together, you pompous twit! Anyway, it’s drop your buffs time, which sounds better out of context. The tribes are switching up, and we end up with Dale/Kelly, Missy/Baylor, Jon/Jaclyn and Keith on one tribe; and Josh/Reed, Alec, Natalie, Jeremy, Wes and Julie on another. Interesting, one tribe almost entirely composed of loved ones and the other tribe almost entirely composed of ‘singles’. There’s no exile challenge today, it’s right back to camp.

On the singles tribe, there is immediate discussion about the food situation. They have been eating like there is no tomorrow and now have meagre food rations for another day or so. That was some poor planning on someone’s part. Jeremy and Natalie begin working on Alec to sway him over to their side, away from the remaining couples. Jeremy refers to the strategy as ‘surround and drown,’ which I kind of wish is more literal than it is. Then, we turn to Josh/Reed and their relationship. Sappy stuff, moving on.

Over at the pairs camp, Jon & Jaclyn are hanging all over each other. More sappy stuff, more moving on. Missy is making rice and Baylor keeps egging her on to make more, while Dale sits and watches stewing over how much rice is being used. Kelly is trying to restrain her Dad because she can see a confrontation looming between Missy & Dale. I will say that if Missy was in charge of making the rice at the other camp, then maybe she shouldn’t be responsible for it here.

On to the immunity challenge and it is an utter blowout. There’s digging for a bag of keys, then crawling through mud, shaking a pole to obtain beanbags, then tossing 10 beanbags onto a platform. It’s all over at the first stage when the pairs tribe can’t find their bag. The singles tribe wins 10-0 as they finish before the pairs tribe throws a single beanbag. The winning tribe then asks Jeff about getting more rice. Jeff says they’ll table that discussion until the next day after the tribal council, but teases that it is not going to be cheap to get more rice.

Back at the losing tribe, Jon & Jaclyn are touching base with both Dale/Kelley and Missy/Baylor. Both pairs are trying to sway Jon & Jaclyn to their side. On the one hand, Baylor screwed over Jaclyn at the beginning of the game, but on the other hand … I don’t really know, they think Dale is shady? For some unknown reason. Keith is in with Missy & Baylor, so it’s all coming down to Jon & Jaclyn.

On to tribal council where the pairing split is discussed. Baylor and Dale don’t like each other, so Missy doesn’t like Dale either and I’m tired of the ‘mama bear’ analogy that Missy keeps trotting out. There’s also discussion how somebody is going to be unhappy because their loved one is being voted out tonight. Dale & Kelley vote for Baylor, and Keith, Missy & Baylor split their votes between Dale and Kelley to guard against an idol (that they don’t have). And then we get another vote tying up Dale & Kelley so we know which way Jon/Jaclyn have gone. Why exactly were Baylor and Kelley the targets instead of their less physically fit parents? No clue whatsoever. This tribe has no particularly smart people when it comes to gameplay. Which probably bodes poorly for this whole tribe, frankly.

Next week, Jeff has a bag of rice and he’s out to trade for his pound of flesh.

 

[DJ Vuvu Zela]

the worst was in the end of show monologue Kelly blamed her Dad for getting voted off. WTF. What a bitch.

 

[KickIT]

How old is Kelly? Can't tell if she's in her 20s or her 50s.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

We begin this week’s episode with Dale lamenting his daughter being voted out. He goes wildly overboard, talking about how he watched her be ‘slaughtered’ in front of him. So, now he’s scrambling and he shows Jon the little knick-knack thingy that he had taken from their well cover, claiming that it’s an immunity idol. It’s not, but Jon falls for it anyway. It doesn’t even seem to occur to him that Dale may be lying.



Now over to the other tribe, where they’re lamenting how little food they have, while Jeremy is lamenting the idea of trading things for food. Probst shows up at their camp and begins to shame them for being the first tribe since Australia (Season 2) to run out of food. And they had a flood, so at least they had an excuse. The deal Jeff offers is that he takes everything they’ve won in reward challenges, leaving them with a machete, a pot, and a flint. Most of the tribe are ok with the deal, but Jeremy is still upset.



On to the Exile/Reward challenge, where each tribe can put up their ‘best’ player. It’s Reed vs Baylor, and if Baylor is your best player, then you are in deep, deep trouble. They’re blindfolded, and have to navigate a wooden obstacle to retrieve puzzle pieces, which are parts of a mask. There are correct pieces and dummy pieces so that they’re easily fooled while blindfolded. Reed is faster in retrieving the pieces, and he’s better at putting them together too. Baylor has many wrong pieces, and Reed only has one, but he figures it out and fixes it before calling in Jeff. He’s right, and the tribe wins a feast. Ironic, what with the sacrifice they just made. Jeremy still isn’t amused. Reed cries, because he’s all wound up over winning. Then, Reed has to pick someone from his tribe to go with Baylor to Exile. He’s going to pick Julie, but then Natalie volunteers, so she’s going instead. Missy shouts out her thanks to Natalie, and seriously, shut up Missy.



At exile, Baylor shares her clue with Natalie, although I’m not at all sure if there’s still actually an idol to find. In theory, Rocker’s idol may have been returned to the game, but I don’t remember which camp that was or who could potentially find this possibly-not-there idol. Meanwhile, Reed’s tribe have their feast that they won, but here comes the rain and wouldn’t you know it, they just gave their tarp to Jeff. It’s a miserable, wet night that drives Julie to the brink of despair and she’s talking about how she can’t go on. I don’t like agreeing with Alec, and I very much disagree with his language, but the sentiment of ‘you should have expected this, it’s Survivor’ is accurate. Jeremy talks her down as best he can, because he doesn’t want to lose an ally.



It’s immunity challenge time, where the tribes climb a wall, push a big wooden cube, retrieve puzzle pieces and then construct a flag out of several pieces. The losery tribe is in good shape, they’re well ahead when they reach the flag puzzle with Jon and Missy working on it. They get the first couple of pieces up … and then they completely fall apart. This has to be just pressure because they simply can’t get another piece allowing Josh and Reed to pass them and win. Wow, that was a terrible performance.



After losing the challenge, Keith decides to take a nap. Wow, that’s a bold move. You know your tribe is going to tribal council and maybe you want to try and figure out what’s going on? No? You’ll nap, instead? Well, ok, then. Dale, on the other hand, is offering to give Jon his (fake) idol if he survives the vote. So, once again, Jon and Jaclyn are deciding between Dale and Missy/Baylor. The fact that Jon told not just Jaclyn but also Missy/Baylor about Dale’s proposal means that Jon is not very smart, and that he’s probably not going to flip to Dale’s side.



We get to tribal and yup, the vote goes according to plan with Keith getting a couple of votes in case Dale’s idol is real, Missy getting Dale’s vote and the rest going to Dale and him being eliminated.



In next week’s preview, it’s merge time! And apparently Josh is being targeted.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

Merge underway...

 

[Zorro]

I missed the first 25 minutes. Did she steal trail mix or just wasn't eating as much as everyone else at that time so saved some?

 

[basketballjones]

she had like 2 handfuls left in her bag

 

[SneakyPete]

Quitters are the worst.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

The Theif became a quitter after getting caught red handed.

.
.. Recap yet to come...

 

[SneakyPete]

I don't think she stole per se. After the feast everyone just packed whatever they had leftover to bring back to camp. She just never bothered to share. She's a princess who couldn't hack it out there.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

This week’s ultimately anticlimactic episode begins with Keith upset that he received votes in the previous tribal council. Missy & Baylor gamely try to rationalize the voting, and that it was always their intention that Dale be voted out. It doesn’t come up that if Dale had an actual idol, then Keith would have been done. Keith hopes there’s no more lying which really points out how little he knows how to play.



Next, the tribes are merging! We have the usual gladhanding amongst the now-merged Survivors and there is a ton of food. Enough that there seems to be a whole lot leftover, and every scrap of food is carried back to camp. This becomes a more important point later. Now comes the alliance discussions. Jeremy appears to have things in hand. He’s got Natalie, Julie, Missy/Baylor and after a conversation with Jon, Jon/Jaclyn are on board too. That makes it 7 to 5. Josh has a very awkward discussion with Baylor where it’s quickly clear that Baylor is stalling. Baylor tells her mom that she wants to tell Josh that they’re not with him. But Missy rightly shoots that down (even though Josh has already figured that out). So Josh knows he’s down on the votes, and talks to Jon. Jon is cagey too, but there’s groundwork laid.



And now we get the tribe looking for the remains of the trail mix from the merge feast. Julie interviews that she has it, and will only share with who she wants to. Oof, that is an absolutely terrible choice. Nothing turns starving people against you faster than hoarding food. And now we see Jon searching her bag and finding the food. He is angry.



On to the immunity challenge which involves ropes, balls and discs. You’re balancing a ball on a disc by holding up two ropes on either side of the disc. As time goes by, you move further and further away by moving down the ropes, and then they add a second ball. Jeremy is terrible and is the first out (which leads to a funny moment where he despairs that Julie beat him. Julie.) Blah, blah, blah it comes down to Josh, Jon, Keith and Wes; and then just Keith & Wes. The pop beats the kid and Keith wins the first immunity.



Back at camp, Jon is telling Jaclyn that they should flip on Jeremy. Why? It’s unclear. Something about sticking with the couples and Jeremy being shady (based on nothing that I can see). Jon’s one of those guys that a) likes having the ‘power’ from being in the middle, and b) thinks that he has to keep making moves to show he’s playing the game. Whereas being in the middle eventually puts you on the bottom once you’re no longer needed to get rid of the opposing group; and making moves for the sake of making moves ends up antagonizing the potential jury.



Also, Julie is picking up on very-not-subtle comments about trail mix, and her response is to make noises about quitting. She talks to Missy who tries to convince her to stay. But it doesn’t work. Julie talks to Jeff and spouts stupid nonsense about how she doesn’t like being separated from John and her head isn’t in the game. You can tell she has rehearsed her excuses because she says word-for-word the same thing to Jeff that she said to Missy. I am convinced she just didn’t want to deal with the drama of being confronted about stealing food. Julie is quitting. Probst discusses with the group and Jeremy is especially upset because he thought he had the numbers to take out Josh. Whereas this probably saved him from a blindside.



In next week’s preview, we get Alec being just as big of a misogynist as his brother and antagonizing his prospective alliance member Jaclyn. Not only is it terrible to make stupid comments about women, but it shows a remarkable lack of gameplay savvy. These are votes you need, either as part of your alliance or as jury votes for the million $. Idiot



Anyway, this is going to lead to friction between Barbie and Ken (i.e. Jaclyn and Jon). Stay tuned...

 

[Bernnie Federko]

Alec has got more arrogance than game smarts...

 

[Bernnie Federko]

This week’s episode begins with the tribe discussing the ramifications of Julie’s quitting. Missy is upset, mainly because she thought the votes were on her side (which they weren’t). Jon interviews that he & Jaclyn have switched to Josh’s alliance, apparently because he’s specifically afraid of Jeremy in the final vote. It seems way too early for that concern to be uppermost in your mind.



We’re off to the reward challenge where the tribe is divided into two with Jeremy, Natalie, Wes, Reed and Keith on one side and Alec, Josh, Baylor, Jaclyn and Jon on the other, leaving Missy unpicked and not taking part. The tribes have to carry heavy pieces by cart, then construct a temple out of them, then haul a rope to raise a flag. Jeremy’s group get an early lead and never look back. They win a meal of tacos. This isn’t a reward I would overly care about. Jon gets sent to Exile, because he hasn’t been yet. Because the winning group has a mix of both alliances, there’s no real strategy talk, although Keith gamely claims he doesn’t know what he would have done if they would have had to vote after Julie quit. Nobody believes him (although he’s stupid enough that it might be true). Wes eats so much he makes himself sick and generally unpleasant to be around.



Back at camp, Alec is ordering Baylor around and generally treating the women like crap. Since Jon is not around, her supposed allies are entirely ignoring Jaclyn, which is incredibly stupid. Josh is trying to guilt Baylor into not voting for him, which is a little funny because he actually voted for her once. Baylor doesn’t feel she owes him, and is annoyed with him for making that argument. Josh realizes his plea isn’t working. On Exile, Jon finds a pretty easy to find immunity idol. So now, two of the least intelligent both have idols. Great. And, Wes, Keith and Alec continue to act gross in front of everyone. Jeremy thinks it’s pretty rude. Alec interviews that he’s comfortable that Jaclyn will do whatever Jon says. Wow, he is dumb.



The immunity challenge is a memory challenge. Jon is the first one out on the second symbol out of four in the first batch. Survivors drop off one by one until it’s Josh vs Jeremy which is telling given that these are the two best players and the leaders of the two respective alliances. Jeremy outlasts Josh and wins immunity, throwing a wrench into Josh’s plans. The guys decide to vote for Baylor. Now that Jon is back from exile, Jaclym tells him how terrible she was treated while he was gone, and that she doesn’t want to ally with them. Jon tries to sway her back. Keith tells Missy that her daughter is terrible and they’re voting for her. Yikes, he’s clueless. It’s not clear which way Jon & Jaclyn are going, Jon still wants to go with Josh while Jaclyn doesn’t.



On to tribal where the alliances are thrown into the open and it’s revealed that once again, Jon & Jaclyn are in the middle. Jaclyn pipes right up about how stupid the guys were in ignoring her and treating her as though she was irrelevant. Josh looks completely surprised. He was so busy trying to turn Baylor that he completely missed that the rest of his alliance was sabotaging their votes. Missy details how gross the guys are being, and Keith says it’s just natural. Both sides pitch their case to the golden couple, and we vote. The votes line up as expected, and then Jon/Jaclyn flip back and vote against Josh. Lates! Amazingly, Julie quitting was probably best for Jeremy even though she was his ally. Go figure.



In next week’s preview, it looks like Reed is finally going to start playing. He discovers Keith’s idol and reveals it to the tribe. With Reed turning on Keith, it looks like Josh’s alliance is self-destructing without him there. Excellent!

 

[DJ Vuvu Zela]

Since Jon is not around, her supposed allies are entirely ignoring Jaclyn, which is incredibly stupid.
.....
Now that Jon is back from exile, Jaclym tells him how terrible she was treated while he was gone, and that she doesn’t want to ally with them.
.....
Jaclyn pipes right up about how stupid the guys were in ignoring her and treating her as though she was irrelevant.

I didn't really see a reason for Jaclyn to be so upset. I'm not sure it was they were "ignoring" her as much as she was hanging out with Baylor. They were definitely treating Baylor like shit, but I didn't notice anything terrible going Jaclyn's way. If there was anything terrible said to Jaclyn it was edited out.

Perhaps she caught attitude from Alec, but Alec is a complete idiot in pretty much all matters. Kind of flakey to throw away an alliance with a bunch of people because of one person.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

This week’s episode opens with the tribe returning to camp. People ask how Reed is doing, and he obviously says he’s fine. Jon is worried that he’ll come across badly for how heavily he was selling his flip to Josh. Jury that Jon/Jaclyn have specifically screwed over so far: 1 for 1. Missy reassures him that it’s not so bad.



Right into the reward challenge where they’re divided into two teams and they go head-to-head to knock each other off a wooden board and into a mud pit. Notable Jaclyn and Missy both suck for their team, accounting for 4 of 5 losses. Baylor secures the decisive win for her team and they’re winning a meal on a yacht. Then, Natalie (a winner) immediately asks to trade places with Jaclyn (a loser). And on top of that, Jeremy (a winner) switches places with Jon (a loser). Then, Jeremy is picked to go to exile as well. Ouch. Natalie explains that she wanted to reward Jon/Jaclyn for sticking with their alliance. Really should have waited a couple of days on that.



Jeremy has a miserable time on exile, and he only wanted to go, to find an immunity idol that isn’t even there. Jeremy correctly comes to the conclusion that Jon has found it. Meanwhile, Jon is panicking, figuring that Jeremy is going to realize that Jon has the idol. On to the immunity challenge which involves untying rope, and stacking blocks into a tower … all using only their feet. It comes down to Reed and Baylor after Keith messes up. Reed can’t get his last block stacked and Baylor comes from behind to win immunity.



Back at camp, Reed has discovered the idol rules sheet in Keith’s bag and lets everyone know that Keith has an idol, and that he should go next. Keith realizes that the sheet is missing from his bag and is upset that anyone would dig through his stuff. Whatever, welcome to the game, you doofus. Jeremy holds a very unsubtle conversation with Jon where he not-quite accuses Jon of finding the idol, and Jon stutters a denial. Jeremy leaves it at that. Jon then goes to Missy, confesses that he has an idol(?!?), and then proposes that the two pairs (Jon/Jaclyn, Missy/Baylor) turn on Jeremy and vote him out. Wow. So, he wants to cut his alliance from 6 to 4 while there are 10 people still in the game. That shows an impressive non-understanding of basic math. Missy is dubious and at the time, I dismiss that they’d really go through with this now. Silly me.



On to tribal where there’s discussion of the hidden idols, accusations that Keith or Wes has it, arguments between Keith/Wes and Jon/Jaclyn, crowing by Reed over the arguments, discussion of how self-serving Natalie & Jeremy’s selfless move was, and so on and so forth. It comes time to vote and … Keith doesn’t play his idol! I thought this was pretty dumb at the time (and still do, I think he was very lucky here). We get three votes for Reed and two for Keith, and then the Jeremy votes begin. It’s five votes for Jeremy (including Reed, which is interesting) and he’s out. Jury that Jon/Jaclyn have specifically screwed over so far: 2 for 2. It’s weird how Jon/Jaclyn have had all the power and zero long-term game plan. They’re just wildly bouncing around, going with whatever catches their fancy at any given moment.



With next week’s preview, it looks like the Jon/Jaclyn power train is finally getting derailed as a movement begins to get him out. The question is whether he twigs to it and plays his idol.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

Well, that was a cracker of a tribal council. And the moral of the day is, if you’re allied with an idiot, you never know what you’re going to get. We open the episode with Natalie deeply unhappy that Jeremy has been voted out (and especially because she was out of the loop on said vote). Her alliance reassures her that it was nothing against her. Jon even tells her about his idol, which gives some credence to their claims. Natalie would like to target Jon soon, but not yet.



On to the reward challenge which had two teams swimming to retrieve totem puzzle pieces and then putting the puzzle together. The team with Wes and Baylor get out to an early lead, but are passed by Jon, Jaclyn, Alec and Reed and then destroyed at the puzzle. Wes goes to exile and Reed switches his spot at reward with Missy. I think this is less currying favor with Missy and more Reed looking to begin his tricky plan as soon as possible. Reed intends to tell Jon and his alliance that Reed and Alec will vote with Jon’s group to target Keith and Wes who have an idol. With Jon’s group splitting their votes between Keith and Wes, then Reed’s group of four could take out Jon. It’s a complicated plan requiring a lot of things to go right, not least of which is Keith keeping his big mouth shut.



The reward involves delivering stuff to children which is nice. Back at camp, Natalie and Baylor are looking for an idol hidden at camp. Natalie figures it out and finds the idol (with Baylor there). The immunity challenge is endurance with the survivors balancing on a little ledge while holding on to handles above their head. Probst is tempting them with food throughout. Alec compares himself to Jesus on the cross, ugh. Jon bails after 8 minutes(!?!) to get a plate of candy/chocolate, after Probst began eating it in front of them. Jaclyn & Baylor bailed for food of some sort, and Wes bailed for wings & beer. The challenge goes on for three hours and it’s down to Natalie and Reed, who being a professional dancer, has a pretty good advantage here. Natalie gets Probst to offer her pizza and wings in exchange for stepping down, mainly because she couldn’t go any further anyway. Reed wins immunity.



Back at camp, Reed and Alec convince Jon and his group that they’re with him to flush out Keith’s idol. Jon’s suspicious but the plan is set exactly as Reed wants. On to tribal, and there’s immediate discussion about who feels safe based on who stepped down in the challenge. Reed says that based on Wes stepping down, that he thinks that Keith or Wes may have an idol. This is clearly part of Reed’s plan to cement that he’s with Jon … and then Keith says that makes him nervous and “that they should stick with the plan”, looking right at Reed. Oh man, does that stir everyone up. The rest of tribal is a mess with people talking over everyone and Reed desperately attempting damage control. As it’s time to vote, Natalie turns to Jon and says “Play your idol”. Jon is surprised and questions this, while Natalie says it’s up to him. Everybody votes. Jeff asks for idols and there’s a dramatic pause. Jon plays his idol. Keith pulls his idol and offers it to Wes, who says no, Keith should play it. So, Keith plays his (still wrapped, seriously – Keith never unwrapped it to verify it was even real). There’s 4 votes for Jon and 3 votes for Keith, all of them worthless. Jon is thrilled that he played the idol. The last two votes go to Wes and he’s finito. So, Reed carried off their plan to perfection, and then Keith destroyed it entirely with one stupid comment. And even then he’d have gotten away with it if Natalie hadn’t tipped Jon to play his idol.



This was pretty ideal for Natalie, she’s left with the only idol, her group is on top and she could almost certainly engineer an ouster against Jon. In next week’s preview, we’re getting two episodes. And we’re getting a pretty serious fight between Jon & Jaclyn. Very interesting.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

We open with Keith unhappy that his son was voted out in the previous tribal, but also utterly clueless for how he was completely to blame for that. Reed and Alec ask why in hell Keith had to tell Reed to ‘stick with the plan’ at tribal, and Keith asks how they would have known what the plan was. It’s the existence of a plan at all, Keith! There are a lot of idiots in this season, it’s depressing. Meanwhile Natalie rightfully thinks Jon should thank her for telling him to play his idol. Jon says he’d have played it anyway, which is a total lie. Jaclyn backs up Natalie which annoys Jon. He doesn’t want Jaclyn going against the family. So, now Jaclyn is upset that Jon isn’t giving her enough credit. Phew, this is exhausting and we’re just getting started.



Reward challenge up, and it’s the usual one designed to showcase the pecking order of the remaining survivors. Get questions right, knock another survivor’s rope, 3 strikes and you’re out (and your fake skull filled with red paint is smashed with a rock – gruesome!). Reed, Keith and Alec are out 1,2,3 and then the remaining five alliance members start discussing who should win. Jeff just throws away the rest of the challenge and Missy “wins”. At first, I thought this was a mistake on Jeff’s part because the key is to determine the pecking order (real or not) within the alliance. But have no fear, we’ll get it anyway. Jon volunteers to go to exile and here’s Natalie’s first mistake if her goal is to eliminate Jon (which it is). Don’t give him a chance to find another idol (which he totally will). The “winner” Missy picks Baylor to accompany her on the horseback riding, food-eating reward and then she picks Natalie over Jaclyn. Mistake #2. This was so obviously going to upset Jaclyn, and why give her time with no-one but your tribal enemies for hours, when she has already shown she is flighty and willing to jump ship with the rising and setting sun. And yes, Jaclyn is upset because since Jon sacrificed to go to exile, of course she should get the reward. Yeesh. Oh, and we also got Reed and Missy arguing over Baylor’s brattiness. Does a 23-year-old really need her mother to have this argument on their behalf? Cause that’s stupid.



Jon yet again finds a not-very-difficult-to-find idol on Exile. Bleh. Reed and Alec are blatantly transparent in trying to sway Jaclyn to their side. Alec’s attempt to sway her includes a very obvious flirting (which he will later deny). On to immunity where they have to roll balls to a balancing wooden platform and keep all six balls in the right holes. Whatever, this is tough to describe. Keith wins (he’s surprisingly good at the immunity challenges, as he is completely hopeless at everything else). Back at camp, Jaclyn drags Jon away and begins to pepper him with everything that happened, and how they have another offer to switch. Jon says, not particularly unreasonably, that he already knew this is what they’d try but he does raise his voice a bit. So, Jaclyn just completely shuts down. She doesn’t appreciate being talked to like that and boy is she going to make sure Jon knows it. Reed comes up and lays out the plan quickly. I can’t tell how much Jon is actually considering it, as Natalie turns up immediately too. Jon says to Reed that there’s no way he can trust him, but Jon is also cartoonishly winking at Reed the whole time. Jaclyn continues to be mad at Jon to the point where she just ignores him … for the next five hours. On a day with tribal council. Jon makes a few attempts to talk to her which she rebuffs. Then, she tries to talk to him and they end up arguing again. Reed is beyond frustrated because he knows his plan fails if they don’t talk to each other.



Our first tribal has everything coming out from Jaclyn being upset not to be chosen for the reward, to Jon & Jaclyn’s fight, to Alec’s inappropriate flirting. Ultimately, the alliance sticks together and Reed is out, motherfuckers.



On to the second hour, and I’m skipping right to the reward challenge. They’re balancing on a block of wood on one foot while holding a ball against another block of wood above their head. Jon does his darndest to hang on but he falls leaving Natalie vs Jaclyn and Natalie wins. She wins a bed at camp and a meal in bed. She chooses Jaclyn and Jon to join her, strictly because she wants Jon unsuspecting for when she tries to blindside him later. Jon likes wine because his father got him into it, and he’s dying. There’s no real joke to be made there, it’s pretty sad. Also, Jon tells Natalie he found another idol. After the reward, Natalie and Baylor discuss and agree that their next target is Jon … as long as he doesn’t win immunity. And he does. It’s this balancing a table thing with a rope while you retrieve and stand up blocks on the table, and whatever, Jon won. So there goes Natalie’s plan. We’re down to Alec vs Keith now, and Jon wants Keith to go because he’s been a challenge threat. So, they’re going to split the vote and Natalie’s new plan is to switch her vote so Alec goes home instead of Keith. This seems dumb, as in a significant risk for a not very significant reward. Natalie tells Baylor (which is dumb, if you are considering this, you’re best off keeping it to yourself and just doing it) and Baylor doesn’t like it because she has this weird thing with Alec. I’m not kidding, she describes it as a “brother-sister, boyfriend-girlfriend” thing. Uh, WHAT??? That is truly bizarre. I dismiss Natalie’s plan as not really serious because why would you show you can’t be trusted before you want to actually blindside Jon?



Then, on to tribal, and they discuss Keith vs Alec, and whatever. They vote … and it’s Alec!!! Natalie actually went with the silly plan. I think she was just so frustrated that she couldn’t go through with her first plan, that she felt she needed to do something, even if it risks her whole game. My suspicion is that she’ll try to play this off as confusion over the split votes because Jon, Missy and Jaclyn were all stunned at the result. We’ll see. In next week’s preview which should be the second-last ep, we see Missy injure herself by falling face-first into a log. Ouch. It’s not entirely clear what the injury is but there’s a medic talking about pulling her from the game for an x-ray. Huh, that kind of spoils things.

 

[awwnaw]

Maybe I'm missing something, but if Natalie's initial plan was to vote Jon, but Jon won immunity; why not take out Jaclyn to break them up and reduce their power? What am I not considering?